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Fire lookout · Chelan County, Washington

Badger Mountain Lookout Site (now at CBFIC)

Also known as CBFIC, Badger Mountain Lookout

Douglas County, WA 18-foot L-4 lookout built 1941 on Badger Mountain; the cab was moved to the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center in 1999 and is displayed there.

Original site: Badger Mountain Lookout Site

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Restricted access

Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. Lookout interiors are open only during center events or by special arrangement (CBFIC). WTA describes three short trails at the center; no entry fee

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
At the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center north of Entiat; the Washington Trails Association lists no entry fee and dogs on leash
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1980s)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Ground-level cab18-foot treated timber tower with a standard Plan L-4 lookout cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1941
Height
18 ft (5.5 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
U.S. Forest Service (original site)
Land
Unknown
Location
Chelan County, Washington
Coordinates
47.69461, −120.21092
Registers
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-wa-badger-mountain-lookout-site-at-cbfic

View from the cab

What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

Downloads about 3.8 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1941 BuiltBuild year per the FFLOS register. The NRHP nomination describes a Plan L-4 revised 1932 and says the original site is undocumentedSources: firetower.org, npgallery.nps.gov
  2. 1946 StaffedBarbara Calder listed as lookout, 1946-1947Source: firelookout.com
  3. 1948 StaffedGeorge Poling listed as lookout, 1948-1950Source: firelookout.com
  4. 1953 StaffedOscar Richardson began as lookout in 1953; the NRHP says he ended in 1972 and the FireLookout.com list says 1974Sources: firelookout.com, npgallery.nps.gov
  5. No record between 1953 and 1988
  6. 1988 FireManned during the 1988 Dinkelman Fire; the fire could be monitored from the siteSource: npgallery.nps.gov
  7. 1990 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesListed 12/27/1990 as part of the USDA Forest Service Fire Lookouts on Wenatchee NF multiple property listing; the listing describes the original summit siteSource: npgallery.nps.gov
  8. 1999 MovedCab moved to the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center at EntiatSource: firetower.org
  9. 2012 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register 20 August 2012Source: firetower.org
  10. Date unknown MovedLookout house moved onto the Badger Mountain summit from an unrecorded original site; a 1947 Forest Service letter names Badger Mountain as a previous moveSource: npgallery.nps.gov
  11. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Badger Mountain lookout stood on a sagebrush-covered summit about seven miles north-northeast of Wenatchee, Washington, just outside the national forest boundary.1,2

The tower was 18 feet tall and carried a standard Plan L-4 cab.3,2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register gives 1941 as its build year.3 The National Register nomination, written in 1988, says the cab follows a Forest Service plan revised in 1932. It also says no record shows where the cab first stood, and a 1947 Forest Service letter it quotes names Badger Mountain as one of the other lookouts moved on the forest.2

Lookouts staffed it over several decades. Barbara Calder worked it in 1946 and 1947, George Poling from 1948 to 1950, and Oscar Richardson from 1953.1 The nomination says Richardson manned it until 1972, while the other list runs to 1974, so the end date is disputed.1,2 In 1988 it was manned during the Dinkelman Fire, and the fire could be monitored from the summit.2

The National Register listed the lookout on December 27, 1990.2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says the tower served the Wenatchee National Forest until the 1980s, and it was registered there in August 2012.3 The cab went to the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center near Entiat in 1999.3 The sources do not say whether the 18-foot tower went with it.3,1,2

Today the restored cab sits at the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center, just north of Entiat.4,5 The center says its lookout interiors open only during its own events or by special arrangement.4 The Washington Trails Association describes three short trails at the center and lists no entry fee.5 The original summit is reached only over private land, according to the 1988 nomination, and we found no recent report of its condition.2

  1. Badger Mtn. Fire Lookout Tower, FireLookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/wa/badgermtn.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Badger Mountain Lookout, National Register of Historic Places nomination (NRIS 90001915), National Park Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/90001915.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Badger Mountain Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/wa/badger-mountain-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. CBFIC - Lookouts, Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center, https://www.columbiabreakswildfire.com/explore/lookouts (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center, Washington Trails Association, https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/columbia-breaks-fire-interprative-trail (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Badger Mountain Lookout Site (now at CBFIC)
Photo: Joe Mabel, via Wikimedia Commons · GFDL · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: register numbers, dates, photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.